Intel Ivy Bridge Z77/H77 motherboards announced

The first Ivy Bridge-ready boards to feature Intel's Z77 and H77 chipsets have arrived, courtesy ASRock and Gigabyte.

The first batch of Intel 7-series motherboards, designed for use with Intel's yet-to-be-released Ivy Bridge processors, have been announced by numerous manufacturers.

Based around Intel's Z77 and H77 chipsets, the boards are being made available in advance of the processors for serial upgraders. Offering backwards compatibility with existing second-generation Sandy Bridge chips, it makes sense to consider a 7-series board if you're planning a future upgrade.

'We are pleased that these new boards support Intel's responsiveness technologies, including Intel Rapid Start, Intel Smart Connect and Intel Smart Response,' boasted Intel's Zane Ball, general manager of desktop platforms, of the launch. 'Users will enjoy snappier performance and quicker access to their most important applications.'

Board maker Gigabyte is one of the first to announce its own take on the 7-series, boasting that it's the first to include a dual UEFI BIOS with a 3D user interface - switchable, you'll be pleased to hear, to a more traditional 2D 'advanced mode' for those who don't want to be distracted with bling while overclocking.

ASRock has also announced its boards, and both companies have something in common beyond the use of Intel chipsets: the presence of Lucid's VirtuMVP technology, claimed to boost frame-rates significantly by eliminating redundant rendering tasks. As with Lucid's other products, it also provides the ability to switch between the on-board graphics built into selected Intel Core processors and a dedicated graphics card depending on application requirements.

Both companies have announced a wide range of 7-series products, from the enthusiast-oriented ASRock Z77 Extreme9 and Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 to the ultra-compact ASRock Z77E-ITX.

Additional common features across the manufacturers' product lines include mSATA support for small-format SSDs - coincidentally, a product line Intel itself has recently started offering - support for the latest Intel technologies, and boards with integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

If you're wondering why the article says "announced" and not "released," and why only two manufacturers were listed: this piece was written on Friday, before the release and before other manufacturers' announcements, but was only published on Monday due to the bank holiday.

Originally Posted by Gareth HalfacreeIf you're wondering why the article says "announced" and not "released," and why only two manufacturers were listed: this piece was written on Friday, before the release and before other manufacturers' announcements, but was only published on Monday due to the bank holiday.

Well, that's a good analysis of what went wrong, but it really doesn't fix the problem of Bit being notoriously late with articles like these...
How can a tech site let written articles with a shelflife measured in hours so regularly be days behind the others?

Oh well, this wasn't all that high on the wishlist we gave the new editor (whatshisface, can't come to the name now), and there IS noticable improvement on the modding and other content. I just hope this long article-postage-pipeline-procedure-paininthearse gets shortened soon, it must be frustrating for you guys too.

Originally Posted by XtrafreshWell, that's a good analysis of what went wrong, but it really doesn't fix the problem of Bit being notoriously late with articles like these...
How can a tech site let written articles with a shelflife measured in hours so regularly be days behind the others?

Oh well, this wasn't all that high on the wishlist we gave the new editor (whatshisface, can't come to the name now), and there IS noticable improvement on the modding and other content. I just hope this long article-postage-pipeline-procedure-paininthearse gets shortened soon, it must be frustrating for you guys too.

You're entitled to your opinion, naturally, but the majority of articles are published within hours of being written. This was an exception, due to the bank holiday. As a matter of fact the three articles posted on Monday were, technically, freebies, as they were written on Good Friday and published on Easter Monday - both bank holidays for which nobody gets paid. Least of all me.

I regularly see stories pop up in my RSS feeds from other sites which I've covered days, and sometimes up to a week, prior. Sure, some of the stories are fresher than others - news that broke in the US, in particular, will be anything up to twelve or twenty-four hours old by the time I cover it - but that's the nature of the beast. I'm a freelancer dividing his time between multiple clients, and I don't work 24 hours a day - nor do I want to.

At the end of the day, however, bit-tech has a single part-time freelance news guy with a hundred and one other clients - me. Comparing coverage to other sites which have a dozen or so full-time reporters offering round-the-clock coverage is disingenuous and, for the people who try their damndest for the site, disheartening.

The usual disclaimer about these opinions being my own and not my employer's - or, more accurately, client's - applies.

Are there any plans to test any of the H77/Z77 boards before the release of Ivy Bridge ? ... for those that want to upgrade to it eventually but want to keep their current CPU for now
... and will that ever show up in a revamped Buyers Guide?

Hmm, I'm buying a MoBo at some point this week. Had my eye on the Asus P8Z68 V Pro but I'm now wondering whether I should plumb for the Asus Z77 instead? I've compared both of them and nothing seems massively different, indeed I don't see any huge advantages between the two but with them being around the same price should I be opting for the newer Z77?

Originally Posted by PhillthyHmm, I'm buying a MoBo at some point this week. Had my eye on the Asus P8Z68 V Pro but I'm now wondering whether I should plumb for the Asus Z77 instead? I've compared both of them and nothing seems massively different, indeed I don't see any huge advantages between the two but with them being around the same price should I be opting for the newer Z77?

Originally Posted by PhillthyHmm, I'm buying a MoBo at some point this week. Had my eye on the Asus P8Z68 V Pro but I'm now wondering whether I should plumb for the Asus Z77 instead? I've compared both of them and nothing seems massively different, indeed I don't see any huge advantages between the two but with them being around the same price should I be opting for the newer Z77?

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhillthyYeah, scratch that. Z77 £2 dearer than the equivalent Z68

Some Z77 boards will give a more stable overclock (according to a thread on the ROG forums), which may in some cases mean higher clocks for the same chip. So IMO Z77 is worth buying if the price gap is that low, even for a SB chip. For IB chips, you will get more features available if you use Z77, as they were designed to work together.

Originally Posted by PhillthyHmm, I'm buying a MoBo at some point this week. Had my eye on the Asus P8Z68 V Pro but I'm now wondering whether I should plumb for the Asus Z77 instead? I've compared both of them and nothing seems massively different, indeed I don't see any huge advantages between the two but with them being around the same price should I be opting for the newer Z77?

Like a moron I bought a Z86 board the day before launch. Sent it back to scan and picked up the equiv board (which was actually £4 cheaper than the Z68 version).

Pretty much the same except with more Sata III/USB3 internal/external.

Went for This one, which has actually come down another four quid or so!

It's a no brainer really, roughly the same price with a bit better spec.

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